January 27, 2018

Top 10 at Oscars 2018

The Oscar season is here. In about five weeks from now, the awards will be handed out. I know I'll be travelling on that Monday early morning (Sunday evening in LA) but will try my best to catch the live broadcast. Meanwhile, there is a lot of work to do. I have hardly watched movies in the last few months, and hence will be eager to binge on some.So if you want to enjoy the Oscar ceremony, make predictions among your friends, root for some and crib about wrong decisions, I share with you here a list of ten movies you must watch. I have been doing this on this blog for five years now. These ten movies cover more than two-thirds of all nominations (not including non-feature film categories). Here we go:

Blade Runner 2049 (5 nominations): Cinematography. Production Design. Sound Editing. Sound Mixing. And VFX.Director Denis Villeneuve fails to secure a nomination for himself unlike last year's 'Arrival'. DOP Roger Deakins will hope for his first win after being nominated for the 14th time.

Call Me by Your Name (4 nominations, including Best Picture): Also for Actor, Adapted Screenplay and Original Song. This film has earned James Ivory his first nomination in 24 years, after being nominated thrice for directing 'A Room with a View', 'Howards End' and 'The Remains of the Day'.

Darkest Hour (6 nominations, including Best Picture): Also for Actor, Cinematography, Costume, Make-up and Hair-design, and Production Design. Gary Oldman has already won the Golden Globe for Best Actor (Drama) for this movie and is a strong contender for his maiden Oscar trophy.

Dunkirk (8 nominations, including Best Picture and Director): Will Nolan win his first Oscar? Or will he have to wait like several great directors have done before him? The film is also nominated for Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score by Hans Zimmer, Production Design, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

Get Out (4 nominations, including Best Picture and Director): Also for Actor and Original Screenplay. Actor Jordan Peele writes, directs and produces his first movie and secures three Oscar nominations! That's some debut. It is unlikely to win any, but the movie has had a great run in every sense. And is a fantastic movie anyway.

Lady Bird (5 nominations, including Best Picture and Director): The movie has won the Golden Globes for Best Picture (Musical/Comedy) and director Greta Gerwig, also nominated for Original Screenplay, is only the fifth director in history to secure an Oscar nomination. Saoirse Ronan also won the Golden Globe for her performance and is a strong contender for the award. Laurie Metcalf is also nominated for her Supporting Role.

Phantom Thread (6 nominations, including Best Picture and Director): Paul Thomas Anderson has eight nominations to his name, without a win. Daniel Day-Lewis is retiring from acting and all of us are sad. But will this result in his record 4th win? The film is also nominated for Costume, Original Score and Supporting Actress.

The Shape of Water (13 nominations, including Best Picture and Director): Guillermo del Toro has already won the Golden Globe for directing this movie, as has Alexandre Desplat for its Original Score. The film is also nominated for Lead Actress, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costumes, Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, being the only film to get all kinds of nominations: writing, acting, as well as most technical categories.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (7 nominations, including Best Picture): The film has already won Best Actress for Frances McDormant, Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell and Screenplay for Martin McDonagh at Golden Globes, all of whom are nominated for Oscars as well, apart from Film Editing, Original Score and another Supporting Actor nomination, for Woody Harrelson.

More movies to watch: After finishing these ten, one should definitely go for 'The Post', 'Coco', 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi', 'Baby Driver'. 'I, Tonya' and 'Victoria & Abdul'. These 16 movies will make you a pro at Oscars this year. :) I have watched only 7 out of these so far.

P.S. I started the 'Must Watch' recommendations in September 2010. Before that I had watched several movies that must feature in this list. But in order to save myself from the useless and predictable exercise of recommending all great movies, I decided to follow a simple eligibility criterion: The movies recommended here would be among those I watched or re-watched since September 2010. So please do not be surprised if 'Cinema Paradiso' or 'Apocalypse Now' (which are, in my opinion, definite Must Watch) do not feature in here. They will find a place in the list the day I re-watch them.